Recent research from the National Bureau of Economic Research investigating external forces influencing obesity has found that two particular factors that may be highly influential: Big-box stores and the proliferation of restaurants. In light of the skyrocketing obesity epidemic, much effort has been made in order to reveal some of the external and internal causes […]
Researchers at the University of Michigan have confirmed what has long been suspected: highly processed food like pizza and chocolate can have the same addictive effect on the brain as alcohol and drugs. The link between food and substance dependent effects in the brain has been indicated by many previous studies, but these researchers were […]
There is nothing more frustrating than feeling like you’re not getting the desired results after making a real effort to keep hitting the gym and cutting back on the junk food. However, if this has ever been you, you are definitely not the only one, and a recent study from Cornell University may have done […]
More great news here in the DiSH lab! Dr. T’s paper, written in collaboration with Dr. Lowry, on evaluating the effectiveness of BodPod in individuals at the lower end of the BMI distribution, just got published in the PLOS ONE journal! The BodPod is a neat device that lets you estimate body fat percentage. But is […]
Does eating a carrot do more good than eating a doughnut does bad? That is what people tend to think when they’re on a diet, at least according to these researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder. They call their finding the “progress bias”, and what it basically means is that people tend to over-exaggerate […]
We are often told that in life it is the little things that matter, and this saying applies readily to health psychology. In two studies, one conducted right here in the DiSH Lab and another one in Sweden, it was found that using negative language and stigmatizing overweight individuals was directly correlated with weight gain. […]
Dr. T’s latest paper, Weight Bias in 2001 versus 2013: Contradictory Attitudes Among Obesity Researchers and Health Professionals, just got published in the Obesity Journal! This study indicates that weight stigma is still widespread today. However, there’s hope for the future, as some forms of weight bias have declined since 2001. Be sure to check it out, along with […]
According to the Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), weight stigma is “what a person experiences when weight bias is internalized as being ‘deserved’. This occurs frequently today, resulting in larger people feeling shame, anxiety, depression, and self-hatred. These diminish a person’s body esteem and motivation for self-care.” That being said, weight stigma is a highly prevalent and […]
We are all guilty of using food for comfort at one time or another. But does comfort eating actually work? Amazingly, it really does! In the words of Dr. T: “Comfort-eating rats showed dampened biological stress reactivity in a stress system called the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Sustained over-activity of the HPA axis is associated with […]
What is DiSH lab doing this weekend? Some of our team traveled north to San Francisco, CA to attend the Association for Psychological Sciences 26th Annual Convention. As part of a fun foodie symposium focused on challenging lay theories about eating, Angela C. Incollingo Belsky gave a talk titled Profiling personalities of long-term calorie restrictions: Why dieting may […]
